Shuhei: DualShock 4’s Light Bar Always Being on is “Kind of Required”

March 21, 2014
Written by Jason Dunning

Following the news that broke yesterday of how we’ll eventually be able to dim the DualShock 4’s light bar in an upcoming update, Shuhei Yoshida spoke with Polygon and reiterated that they’re working to dim it. Shuhei then added, “I’m not talking about the percentage [of how much dimmer it will be], but you’ll be able to make it very, very dark. We need to keep it on, even if it’s dark, because that’s the only way to tell the controller is switched on. It’s kind of required.”

With the dimming, Shuhei says the reflections from the light bar will be “much dimmer” and, as he’s suggested before, the DualShock 4’s battery life won’t see vast improvements if you dim the light bar:

The LED [power usage] is much lower than people think. We know the DualShock 4 lasts less than the DualShock 3, but that’s because there is much more in the DualShock 4, like the touch pad.

When Sony announces a release date for the PS4 firmware update to allow light bar dimming, we’ll let you know.